United States Eventing Association

Young Rider Open Forum with Jan Byyny

Jan owns and manages Surefire Farm in Purcellville, Va., organizes the Surefire Horse Trials and actively competes at all levels of eventing. Consistently a top-ranked international rider, Jan’s career highlights include team gold and individual bronze at the Pan American Championships at Fair Hill, being a member of the Aachen World Equestrian Games squad, competing on U.S. Equestrian teams at Malmo, Sweden and Luhmuhlen, Germany, and being selected as a team alternate for the Athens Olympics and the Normandy WEG. Jan’s recent placings include 7th at the 2014 Rolex Kentucky 4* and a win at the 2013 USEF National 3* Championship at Fair Hill. Jan is quite active in the United States Eventing Association organization an serves co-chair of the Young Rider Committee. Jan also serves on the United States Equestrian Federation’s Eventing High Performance and Eligible Athletes Committees, and is a long-time coach of the Area IX Young Rider Team.

Effective and Enforceable Liability Contracts with Yvonne Ocrant

Yvonne is a trial lawyer, transactions attorney, and certified mediator who practices in the areas of equine law, employment law, and commercial litigation. Yvonne’s equine law experience includes handling litigation and transactions involving the Equine Activity Liability Act and various other state and federal laws affecting equine industry activities. She assists individual horse owners, trainers, breeders, facilities, veterinarians and others in the equine industry litigate and resolve claims for personal injury, property damage, and other losses caused by allegations of negligence, breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and other legal issues. She also drafts contracts for horse purchases, sales, and leases, assists with negotiating and drafting employment and independent contractor agreements for equine industry workers, and creates equine liability releases for horse owners, trainers, breeders, facilities, veterinarians, transporters and other individuals and entities sponsoring or participating in equine activities. She also has extensive experience developing muli-owner syndicates for horses in numerous disciplines, including eventing, dressage, and jumpers, as well as creating stallion and mare breeding syndicates. The syndicates completed to date range from several owners to multiple owners, range in value from $5,000 to $850,000 in value, and vary from very young horses beginning their training to mature horses competing at the highest levels of their sport. She is also the author of "HEADS UP!," a monthly column on various equine law related issues published in the Scribe, a monthly magazine sponsored by the Illinois Dressage and Combined Training Association. Yvonne speaks extensively on the topic of equine law to national and local organizations.

Equine Nutrition Performance Issues and Solutions with Tim Mays of Nutrena

Tim Mays is the Territory Leader of the Equine Enterprise Team with Cargill Animal Nutrition. He has been with Cargill since 2003. Tim has a diverse education including a Financial Administration degree from University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and a degree in Paramedic Emergency Medicine from Texarkana College. He is a lifelong horseman, owner, trainer, clinician, and former competitive rider, primarily in the Quarter Horse industry; he also authored “Horse People Are Just Different” published in 2009. Tim is from Arkansas and currently lives in Oxford, Mississippi, has been married for 27 years to Jan (Mississippi State Univ. – Ph.D. C, ECC). Tim and Jan have two kids, Lainey, 21 (Sr. at Ole Miss) and Grayson,15.